Quiz Guy John Chaneski has a word game based on the preferences of Mookie the Cow, whose favorite things have names that feature moo sounds. That loose Hawaiian garment, for example. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Moo Word Game”...
You have 30 cows and 28 chickens. How many didn’t? The answer is 10, because 28 can be heard as twenty ate, making the setup mean that twenty cows ate the chickens. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “The Answer to the “30 Cows and 28...
A caller from Amherst, Massachusetts, says that her grandmother, born in 1869, never called a bull a “bull,” but instead simply called it “the animal.” This kind of euphemism, along with “gentleman cow,” supposedly helped avoid the delicate topic of...
We eat chicken and fish, but not cow. Instead, we use terms like veal, beef, mutton, and pork to refer to red meat. It’s largely the result of the Norman invasion of the British Isles, when French started to meld with English. This is part of a...
Tuna may be the chicken of the sea, but octopi, lobsters and crabs are the hens. That is, the females of each those species is called a hen. Aaron Zenz’s lovely book for children I Love Ewe: An Ode to Animal Moms offers a little lesson about female...
Cowpies, horse biscuits, buffalo chips, horse dumplings — why do so many names for animal droppings have to do with food? A caller wonders this, and whether the term cowpie would be an anachronism in a Civil War novel. This is part of a complete...
